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Juan Oiarzabal: the show must go on
Agu 5, 2004 08: 32 EST
Juan ‘Juanito’ Oiarzabal had something more than a difficult descent from K2. July 27 was almost his last day on Earth. That’s when by sheer luck, Ferrán Latorre found Juanito lying near unconscious in the snow in the middle of the night.
In fact, many days in Juan Oiarzabal’s life have been almost his last. ExplorersWeb have earlier published the killer statistics for the 8000ers and the risk involved in climbing each of them. The simple rules of math have it that the more you climb; the higher your risk of getting killed. The average stat’s for our 8000ers is 10 % risk of dying. So how big exactly is the risk for someone who has done more than 30 expeditions, and summited no less than 21, 8000ers? No math is needed to find that Juanito is long overdue. And a lucky guy.
He almost died on Kangchenjunga. His heart failed when reaching the summit, and he owes his life to the Iñurrategi brothers, who risked their life to save his. He was hit by an avalanche on the Blue tooth, during an acclimatization climb on Shisha Pangma, where he lost his friend ‘Zulu’.
Not so much left to do
The Basque climber was born in Alava 48 years ago. No longer your typical young daredevil, Juanito doesn’t seem to give a rat about statistics. Nor for the high moral’s and aesthetic standards of ‘pure alpinism’.
He didn’t to K2 ‘because it’s there’. He didn’t pretend to ‘find himself’. He was on K2 because it was his job. He was there to film a documentary with a summit included. That’s what he was paid for and that’s why he kept himself and his team out of the fuss regarding the use of ropes. “Of course we will use the ropes! And if there are no ropes when we get to C4, we will fix them ourselves”.
After he completed the 14, 8000ers (with Annapurna last), the media turned their lights on the relatively unknown climber, and Juanito became famous. Good enough, because as he ended his quest for the highest peaks on Earth, fame brought him something very important: A job. He has since become a regular in the “Al Filo de lo Imposible” Spanish TV’s documentaries.
Absolute focus
But the truth is that it takes more than money to find the will to risk your life for a summit you’ve already reached, and almost died when doing so. Plus his job doesn’t pay all that great, really. It takes more than a contract to keep on climbing, in spite of the night getting late: To reach the summit without thinking of the long descent ahead or not even allowing the fact that you’re exhausted to enter your mind.
Juanito has more than once gone a bit too far, too late in his absolute focus on the summit. And made it down alive thanks to other climbers.
But he has also never denied the fact that he was rescued. This may seem obvious, but it is in fact not too common for a well known, prestigious climber, to accept in public that he made a mistake and depended on others to survive.
Juanito’s moody temper
A moody man with frequent bursts of temper, he is also brutally honest and crystal clear in his statements. Doesn’t know of the games of diplomacy or ‘savoir faire’. But as he stated in the prologue of a book written by the Valencian climbers who helped him down Everest in 2001; “Nobody will ever accuse Juan Oiarzabal of being ungrateful.”
Whenever he goes on an expedition, fellow climbers will know that there will be arguments, some loud words, and strong feelings about the transcendence of mountaineering. But also laughter, fair play and probably the best food in Base Camp.
“Pray much, these days, for us”
Oiarzabal makes friends and enemies easily, but lefts no one untouched. His climbs have been talk of town many times. He has accumulated summits, lost friends to the mountains, had many a change of heart, been satisfied - or furious. Got married twice and had a kid, now four years old.
«If you believe in God, and you use to pray, do it now. Pray much, these days, for us». This is the pragmatic Juanito. Although not very religious himself, if the others do, let them pray, just in case. And it is good they did, because this time the call was very, very close.
Barking at the Press
From a hospital bed in Islamabad, Juanito attends the call of a journalist - he never refuses to answer calls from the press guys. He barks without hesitation at some of the clumsy questions: When asked if he is thinking of quitting mountaineering, he snaps: “And what about you, lad? Are you giving up writing?”
But soon he is thinking out loud and makes new plans. Although he still doesn’t know how bad his frostbites are, he calculates: “OK, I am gonna miss Cho Oyu this fall, that’s for sure. But I could go somewhere else… Let’s say, Dhaulagiri? And I have promised Edurne we would go for Nanga Parbat next year... Yeah, I will be climbing some more 8000ers before retirement, or what did you expect?”
A snow leopard with twenty plus lives
He knows already that the will suffer amputations. Arriving at the Madrid Airport, Oiarzabal was not in the mood to talk to the press anymore. People came to greet him, clapping and cheering. All he muttered, as someone lead him to an ambulance, was: “It was not worth it. Yeah, we summited. But it was not worth it.”
Another change of heart. But the story is probably far from over. Just as a domestic cat has nine lives, this snow leopard has had twenty plus. Juanito Oiarzabal owes his life to climbers and his soul to the mountains. His focus is both very powerful and very dangerous. But the fact stands - Juanito summited the killer mountains 21 times, and he is still alive.
Oiarzabal 21 8000ers:
Cho Oyu 1.05.1985. Gasherbrum II 16.08.1987. Nanga Parbat, 17.07.1992. Everest, 7.10.1993. K-2, 24.06.1994. Makalu, 8.05. 1995. Broad Peak, 12.07.1995. Lhotse, 2.10. 1995. Kangchenjunga,6.05.1996. Hidden Peak, 9.06. 1997. Manaslu, 8.10.1997. Dhaulagiri, 22.05.1998. Shisha Pangma, 9.10.1998. Annapurna, 29.04.1999. Everest (2nd time) 23.05.2001. Cho Oyu (2nd time), 5.10. 2002. Gasherbrum II (2nd time), 20.07.2003. Hidden Peak (2nd time), 26.07.2003.
19.- Cho Oyu (3rd. time) 23.09.2003. Cho Oyu (fourth time) 3.10.2003. K2 (2nd time) 26.07.2004.
Images of Juanito, during K2 expedition 2004, courtesy of El Correo Digital.Top picture: Juanito and Edurne Pasaban. 2. Helped down in BC. 3.Few steps from the summit. 4. Base Camp Chef Oiarzabal. 5.Al Filo team, from left to right: Juanito, Edurne, Juan Vallejo, Mikel Zabalza.
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